Palau: Getting There

My trip to Palau started on August 3rd, when I began the two day journey to get there from Okinawa. While there are direct flights from Okinawa to Palau, there were none available when I made my reservations some months ago. To get around this problem, I figured out a route that took me to Osaka, where I spent the night, flying to Guam then Palau the next day.

Who wouldn't want to get to a place like this as fast as they could?

That was the plan anyway.

As I checked in at Kansai Airport en route to Palau, things seemed to be taking longer than expected. I asked the check-in staff if there was a problem. There was.

Palau requires that incoming travelers have at least 6 months validity remaining on their passports. I had 5 and a half. I stood there, elbow on the check-in counter and my forehead resting on my palm while I thought of all the ways I could convince the staff to let me get on the plane. Nothing worked - they knew I wouldn't get into Palau, so they didn't let me board.

I asked them for the phone number to the U.S. Consulate in Osaka, gave them a ring, and told them my situation. The man on the phone said it would take about a week or so to get a new passport - no good, since I was only going to be in Palau for a week or so. At this point, I really thought my trip to Palau was canned. The man on the phone suggested I come in and meet with staff to talk about it. Luckily, the people at Passport Services knew their stuff and were able to issue me a temporary 1-year passport within a few hours, which then allowed me to rebook my flights just two days (and a good bit of money) later.

I spent an additional two days with my buddy Mac, a Japanese I met in Taiwan this past April. And not wanting to waste my time sitting around waiting for planes, I took a day trip to Kyoto, rented a bike, and got to one of the famous temples I was not able to see when Brent was here last year.

清水寺, Kiyomizu dera, or the "clean water temple", Kyoto.

Two days later, I approached the same check-in counter with high hopes. They accepted the new passport and everything went smoothly from there.